


Tar Heel

by magicandlight



Series: The States [10]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Civil War era, Gen, North Carolina Centric, REWRITTEN: 11/18/18, The southern siblings are goals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-18
Updated: 2018-11-18
Packaged: 2018-12-25 21:37:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12044781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicandlight/pseuds/magicandlight
Summary: His twin and his sister are gone, and the world dims as David learns how much he hates being left alone.His hands do not shake as he signs the notice of secession.





	Tar Heel

His twin and his sister are gone, and the world dims as David learns how much he hates being left alone. 

His hands do not shake as he signs the notice of secession. 

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David's been mocked before. 

It was to be expected. He had been a colony made of bootleggers and pirates, rural and thinly populated for a while. He'd had an accent thicker than anyone else's for the longest time. 

It's fine. He can bear it all. 

But here are his people being made a mockery of. They point at North Carolina on the map and call it the reluctant state, say that they are a state of cowards, joke about buying up all the tar to make his statesmen stay. 

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Davis can't tell the difference between him and Daniel. Their supposed president doesn't seem too bothered by this fact. 

David, personally, is a little insulted.

Just because they're identical twins doesn't mean they're the same person. 

Daniel is the reckless one, the one that doesn't think things through. He's smart, sure, and no one can write a battle plan like he can, but he has a habit of leaping before looking. He's impulsive and stupidly brave.

David is the more observant one, the one who knows sometimes you just have to go and take it and sometimes you have to wait for it. He's smart enough, observant enough to figure things out without having to be told. 

There is a reason there are two Carolinas, after all.

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This war is tiring, a never-ending chess game where he must always be on edge or risk a checkmate. (At least in a battle, enemies and allies are helpfully color-coded.)

The house has the same fragility as congress meetings before the war, like the wrong word or action could lead to damnation. 

He knows what he looks like; he knows how his accent is clipped and his words are pronounced and enunciated perfectly, everything to escape that image of an illiterate backwater colony. 

This war requires that he tread carefully, so David learns how to play the game- how to smile and laugh when the jokes start, how to stop the force of habit that is his clean-cut enunciation so that his accent is thicker. At least fifty percent of him is that famous southern charm, and he shows it. 

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Jackson brushes a curl of Scarlett's hair behind her ear, a gesture Alfred had done many times before. 

But Alfred's fingers never lingered on Scarlett's cheek, never made Scarlett look so trapped-

His pen snaps in his hands, ink splattering over his hands.

Daniel looks at him and the realization hits him like a bullet.

 _He knew_.

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"How long has that been happening." David gets out between gritted teeth.

Daniel can't meet his eyes, and David's heart drops to his stomach. 

There are a lot of things David would do for his brother. There are a lot of things he would forgive Daniel for without hesitation. 

Risking Scarlett is not one of them. 

It is a risk, after all. Jackson's attention is fixed on her now, and Daniel had not intervened in the early days when it could have been stopped. 

David leaves.

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David doesn't feel old very often, but he does now, like the weight of his two centuries have suddenly been dropped on him all at once. 

He checks on Evangeline as soon as he can. Her cheek is bruised and tender where Jackson hit her- he is a nation that doesn't know how to control his own strength- and David is left equal parts furious and weary. 

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He drags Tim home after he loses his first life. 

David doesn't speak to Jackson, just shoves past him, Tim heavy and limp in his arms. 

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"Scarlett's sleeping with her cavalry sword on her nightstand." David says quietly. He doesn't look up, just keeps looking at the maps. 

Daniel sighs and runs a hand through his hair, leaning back in his chair. "I'm worried about her."

Scarlett gets quieter, it seems, every week. She's too still, too silent, too agreeable. She used to be so vibrant and alive.

✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹

Perhaps David takes too much pleasure in throwing those stupid tar jokes back in the faces of the people who said them about his statesmen. 

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Scarlett seems like she's getting quieter the longer the war lasts, and it worries David.

Daniel, too, if the way he sticks around Scarlett means anything. (If he's being honest, even Flora seems a little worried.)

The fact that David knows that Daniel and Flora are looking after Scarlett makes it a little easier to leave to fight, and he knows the other two feel the same.

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Davy doesn't really mind the marching.

Better to march than to fight.

They pass one of the units from Texas and David doesn't grit his teeth when they call out  _Tar Heels!_

Some of his men grimace. 

One of them breaks the agitated silence. "If  _you_  had some tar on  _your_  heels, you would've brought your flag back from Sharpsburg a few days ago."

It startles a laugh out of David, and suddenly a tar heel isn't such a bad thing to be.

✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹

He sees Cordelia on a battlefield, and almost laughs at the cocky smile and sarcastic salute she gives him before she fades back into the navy uniforms of the other side.

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Jackson teeters on the edge, and sometimes there are good days. 

His mood swings faster than any of them can keep up with, and sometimes, he's a little bit more like Alfred and less like the nation who bruised Evangeline

There is a day when Ginny plays the piano in the parlor and Caden, laughing asks Ev to dance with him except they both keep stepping on each other's toes because they're laughing too hard to pay attention and they're doing two completely different dances but somehow making it work. Josh dances with Scarlett, which is clearly a mistake since he doesn't understand how seriously she takes her dancing and David can't help but laugh at Flora's half-scowl before Drew is grabbing her hand and pulling her over to dance. Ginny is smiling as she plays- switching between songs with a fluidity that cannot be taught. Scarlett gets passed off to Tim and says something that makes him flush and step on her foot but she just laughs it off. And when Jackson comes in, he smiles and compliments Ginny's playing so profusely she flushes pink and then tells Caden that pretty girls won't ask him to dance if he steps on their feet every four seconds. Jackson dances with the girls- even pulling Ginny up for a song or two while Daniel takes her place at the piano- and jokes with the boys and they forget about the war for a while.

✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹

Daniel dies at one of the battles and David sits with Scarlett and they wait for him to come back.

No matter how angry he is, he won't let Scarlett wait alone, or Daniel wake up by himself. 

✹✹✹✹✹✹

Scarlett hogs blankets, and eventually David just gives up and goes to get his own off his bed.

He comes back and Daniel is back, looking at him with surprise written all over his face. 

That _hurts_ \- "You thought I just left you two alone?" 

Daniel doesn't deny it, eyes going guilty. 

David drops onto the bed beside him. "I wouldn't do that."

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Jackson comes in first and David's already out the door the second he sees him because  _if Jackson's back then Scarlett is too_ -

He stops on the last step, as his sister lifts her head up to show her face. 

A heartbeat later, he hears Daniel, breathless from running across the house. "Scarlett!" and then softer, as he catches sight of where Scarlett and David had paused. "Scarlett?"

Daniel joins them at the foot of the stairs and makes a low, pained noise at the sight of the dark bruise marring Scarlett's face. 

It- it isn't pretty. Her eye is swollen half-shut and her bottom lip is split at the corner.

David's mind goes to the worst place, to the worst implications- "Scarlett?" He breathes out. "Did he-"

Daniel's head snaps towards David, eyes wide and horrified before he looks back at Scarlett. 

Scarlett shakes her head. "He just slapped me." She closes her eyes as best she can with one swelling. "There was a boy- a soldier- I was taking his pain but he died anyway- and when Jackson tried to take me away I bit him and he-" She gestures helplessly at her face. 

There are no words for the fury David feels. 

He forces himself to memorize the bruise on his sister's face, his little sister, who he was supposed to protect. 

✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹

He catches Evangeline sneaking out, bag on her shoulder.

Her eyes are wide and panicked and when she speaks, it's in pleading french.  _S'il vous plaît_.

David thinks of the bruise on Scarlett's face. He darts back up to his room, and Evangeline is still there when he comes back.

He offers her a smile and his pistol. 

✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹

Evangeline is gone and when Jackson predictably throws a fit.

Daniel gives him a look, easily translated.  _Please, please, just this once keep your mouth shut, David._

David ignores it. 

Jackson's on the verge of calm when he asks if anyone knew.

David sets his glass down on the table, gives his best and most insolent smile. "I did."

Jackson whips to face him, whole body facing him like some kind of pointer dog. " _What_."

"I was awake when she left. I gave her my pistol in case she ran into trouble on the way. She's handy with that rapier, but it isn't the most practical of weapons."

Jackson moves toward David, and suddenly Scarlett between them, a knife in hand.

Her skirts still swish from the movement. Hoop skirts had been an improvement on the previous era's layers of thick petticoats, and everyone forgot that Scarlett could move so fast when she was wearing her dresses.

Jackson freezes in shock.

Scarlett adjusts her grip. 

There is no falter in her stance, no weaknesses to exploit. 

"Touch my brother and I'll kill you." Her voice is deceptively soft. 

David looks at his brother and an agreement is reached in seconds.

Jackson steps back. 

✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹

Scarlett can't stop screaming as the Union army torches swathes of land and yanks up railroads behind them.

✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹

Ginny surrenders at a tiny village west of Petersburg, Virginia they call Appomattox, and the dominos of the Confederacy begin to fall.

✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹✹

The war ends with eleven stars on a table and eleven states knocked back to territory status. 

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Years later, they'll call his people Tar Heels and this time, it'll be a compliment. 

**Author's Note:**

> rewritten: 11/18/18 
> 
> so I actually finished the rewrite early! I wanted it done by his statehood anniversary on the 21st, but here it is three days early.


End file.
